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WIPO has turned the tables on multinational companies with the publication of a draft report on protecting traditional knowledge. The 320-page report covers owners of tradition-based literary, artistic or scientific intellectual activity.

At the conclusion of the Trilateral Technical Meeting Study, held in Tokyo in June, the Trilateral Offices ? the JPO, USPTO and EPO ? issued a Report on a Comparative Study Carried Out under Trilateral Project B3b with a "Consensus Summary ? Confirmed Current Practices on Business Method Related Inventions". The consensus on computer implemented business methods is:

The Andean Court of Justice has just passed an important decision concerning the implementation of Decision 344. Jose Barreda explains that the decision will lead to greater conformity between the member states

The Spanish Government has drafted a new Trade Mark Law which will be presented to the Spanish Parliament for debate later this year. The new law will tighten the existing 1988 law by enforcing the Spanish Constitutional Court ruling which argued that competence in some matters of trade marks should correspond to the Spanish Autonomous Communities; some provisions of the Protocol and TRIPs Agreement; harmonization with the Community Trade Mark Regulation and the complete implementation of the Trade Mark Law Treaty including the introduction of the multi-class system.

Tomorrow's biggest industries will all be driven by technology. Robert Stoll, of the USPTO, takes a timely look at the significance of patent law as an engine of economic development and improvements in human life

The Netherlands "cross-border" judgments in European patent proceedings are famous. In the past a European patent owner could obtain a pan-European cross-border injunction from the Netherlands judges.

Tacking allows you to secure priority for your US trade marks by citing earlier registrations. But Thomas M Williams warns that recent cases have limited trade mark owners' ability to tack old marks on to new ones

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As global protection becomes more desirable and more expensive, the new Patent Law Treaty promises to make the process less painful. But progress towards harmonization is slow and pain-staking. Tabitha Parker reports

The US Patent and Trademark Office is facing the loss of 25% of next year's income, under budget proposals in the House Commerce-Justice-State appropriations bill. The cuts come as business is soaring: patent applications were up 12% last year, and trade mark applications increased 40%.